A Pilgrim’s Digression

The Washington Post features an article today titled Mormon Base a Mixed blessing for Romney, but although it holds out the promise of addressing the central question I have about his candidacy–will Baptists, Catholics, and other mainline Christians vote for him?–it never even comes close to stepping on that particular land mine.

I have admitted here previously that I am somewhat prejudiced against Mormons. I live in a town where, due to the presence of a private Mormon university, the Mormon population is high. There are so many Mormons in our town that the church holds services almost every hour of the day on Sunday in order to accommodate all of its parishioners.

As a result of living amongst Mormons, I have to deal with the almost weekly door-to-door visits of brightly smiling, white young Mormons evangelizing on behalf of their religion. On the very day I moved in to my house last year, two young Mormon men going door to door accosted the movers as they worked, and then came up on the porch to try to talk to me. I’d probably be prejudiced against Baptists, if they pestered me as much as these Mormons do.

Thus, I am not tolerant of the Mormon religion. Frankly, I find its theology to be false and its communal ethic creepy. I won’t be voting for Mitt Romney.

The Post article linked to above does nothing to allay my prejudice; in fact in its silence on the central issue–will mainstream Christians vote for a Mormon–it actually increases my fears. The way in which the article links Mormonism to mainstream Christianity is frightening, because there are plenty of ill-informed Christians out there who know nothing about Mormonism and the way in which it contradicts mainstream Christianity. I can easily see Christians voting for Romney under the mistaken belief that they are voting for someone who simply belongs to another denomination of Christianity.

Romney’s strength, as the Post defines it, is his fundraising, which in turn is based in his connection to the Mormon church:

As he vies for a place in the top tier of contenders for the Republican nomination, Romney is reaping enormous benefits from being part of a growing religion that has traditionally emphasized civic engagement and mutual support. Mormons are fueling his strong fundraising operation, which this week reported raising $21 million, the most of any Republican candidate. And they are laying the foundation for a potent grass-roots network–including a cadre of young church members experienced in door-to-door missions who say they are looking forward to hitting the streets for him.

“When Mormons get mobilized, they’re like dry kindling. You drop a match and get impressive results quickly,” said University of Notre Dame political scientist David Campbell, who is Mormon. “It’s almost a unique group in the way in which it’s organized at the local level and the channels through which mobilization can occur.”

As someone who does not want a Mormon President, this is frightening to me. Even leaving the Mormonism aside, Romney has been moving steadily to the right, away from his liberal record as a Massachussetts governor. As Post op-ed contributor Richard Cohen has said, while becoming a born-again conservative may bring him more in line politically with the likes of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, his Mormonism remains a stumbling block for the many Christians those two men represent–as well as many Christians (myself included) whom they do not represent. Something like a third of all voters say they are unlikely to vote for a Mormon candidate.

For example, my grandmother is a non-denominational, fundamentalist Christian; I myself was raised in her fundamentalist church. My grandmother makes it very plain that she will never vote for a Mormon, and I doubt anyone in her church will vote for one, either. It is not uncommon in her church, as well as other fundamentalist churches, to have anti-Mormon lessons as part of Sunday school, or even as part of the Sunday sermon.

A friend of ours attends a more conservative, Southern Baptist-affiliated church, and last summer her Bible-study group spent a week studying the Mormon religion as a way of propounding the view that Mormonism is not a mainstream Christian religion. I doubt that our friend, or anyone in her church, will vote for a Mormon.

This anti-Mormon prejudice is endemic within mainline churches, and it is not entirely unwarranted. From a strictly theological point of view, Mormons have their own “gospel,” the Book of Mormon, and their own set of “unique” beliefs about Jesus Christ. Just to cite some examples, Mormons do not believe in the Trinity, that is that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are one in substance. They believe that Jesus came to America after his ascension and spread the gospel to Native Americans. And finally, they believe that the Mormon church’s unique doctrines were revealed to the “prophet” Joseph Smith directly by God.

These examples do not even broach the more arcane details of the religion, such as the practice of “sealing,” by which Mormons can confirm their relationship to dead, non-Mormon family members, thereby assuring that these familial relationships will continue into the afterlife.

If mainstream Christians disagree with these beliefs, how can they set aside that disagreement and vote for a man who professes to believe these things? Should they set aside their religious beliefs and vote for Romney anyway, just because he is the purported “family values” candidate?

I would contend that his religious beliefs are fair game, when considering whether to vote for him. Personally, I’d like to know more about just what he specifically believes. Is he merely using the Mormon church’s organizational acumen to fundraise and otherwise promote himself, or is he truly a believing member of this church, a man who ascribes to all or most of its teachings?

My fear is that these questions will go unasked, and mainstream Christians will end up voting for this man out of ignorance of what he really believes. People are afraid of revealing any hint of intolerance, even where intolerance may be justified; and this silence regarding the elephant in the room–Mitt Romney’s religious beliefs–may be the silence that allows the wrong man at the wrong time to assume the Presidency of the United States.